§ SIR JOHN LENG (Dundee)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if he will state why a distinction was drawn between the Volunteer officers who went out to South Africa at the beginning of the war and those sent out between six and eighteen months before it was terminated, to the detriment of the latter in respect both of leave and pay, which 1353 were granted on landing to the one and withheld from the other; why Volunteer officers from the Mother Country were less liberally treated than Colonial officers in regard to decorations; and whether it is intended to continue the requirement that officers holding His Majesty's Commission in the auxiliary forces must be sworn in by recruiting sergeants as private soldiers, and answer the questions in the attestation papers, before obtaining temporary commissions in the Regular army.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE WAR OFFICE (Lord STANLEY, Lancashire, Westhoughton)As regards the first part of the Question, no such distinction was drawn. The Volunteer officers who returned with their units were given a month's leave with pay for the purpose of settling up with their men; those who came home individually were released from service from the date of disembarkation, unless retained in South Africa for the public service, when they were given a month's leave from date of disembarkation. As regards the second part, my right hon. friend gave the hon. Member a full reply to a Question which he put on the 12th instant,† to which I have nothing to add. As regards the third part, the practice was discontinued in 1900.
§ MR. LUKE WHITE (Yorkshire, E. R., Buckrose)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War with respect to the Volunteer officers employed in South Africa and who were mentioned in despatches and received rewards, if he will state the number of these officers who served with Volunteer companies and engineer detachments.
§ LORD STANLEYI will obtain the information requested by the hon. Member.